Have you ever felt completely alone or exposed in your business?

As you’re building your business you will have times where you feel completely vulnerable and like there’s no one there to help you.

Because, in many cases, there isn’t.

While this is exhilarating for some, for most of us this can lead to indecision, wishy-washyness, burn out, or constant context-shifting in what we’re working on.

In this episode, I discuss the lessons that I’ve learned not only in business, but also draw on my experience as a special operator to help you through these times. There are key strategies that you can begin employing today that will help ensure you come through these periods with success.

Happy hunting!

Links

Learn more at https://www.adamliette.com

Activate The Warrior Within https://www.adamliette.com/awaken-the-warrior

Transcript

This is the smooth operator Podcast. I'm Adam Liette, director of operations for a seven figure online business and eight year veteran of Army Special Operations on this show begin to the tactical, nitty gritty of what it really takes to run a thriving online business. Because at the end of the day, operators lead the way. What's up somebody operators Welcome to this episode. So I'm still on the road. But looking forward to getting back in the office soon. But like I said, did not want to leave you without new episodes, hope you're enjoying the show. And if you haven't given this show review yet, what are you waiting for, give it a review, I always appreciate hearing your thoughts. So once upon a time, it's been about eight years ago or so I was sent to a foreign country, we'll just leave the country. Anonymous for now is when I was a special operator. And if you ever seen those movies, it's like go to the country land and a guy will meet you at the airport. Like that literally does happen. And that was the case in this in this circumstance where I did some mission prep, I kind of knew what I was getting into. But like it was literally Hey, fly to this country guy, we'll meet you, you'll figure it out from there.

So I had to have no any support structure there had very little direction, just really a problem statement and with the objective of figuring it out. And so two weeks later, I had a full a multi year operational design. I you know, met with US Ambassador like all those things, set the conditions for follow on teams to execute the mission. But in the big picture, I was on an island. So I was just sent there with a problem and being told to figure it out. Does that sound familiar to most of you? It should, because that's literally Tuesday. In entrepreneurship, you don't have a whole lot of people to turn to your left to your own devices, you don't really have support systems, you have people that are telling you things you might have masterminds that you can turn to, but you don't always have really a support structure. It can be uncomfortable at times exhilarating at other times, because there's no one to tell you no. But there's also no one to give you a course correction, no one to be able to bounce ideas off of no one to tell you you're being crazy, or man, that's a good idea. And it kind of kind of comes in both those facets, both the negative and the positive, you know, some of the positive things is that you do have complete freedom to do whatever you feel it's necessary.

The negative is, you know, that sanity check that sometimes we need, or that little bit, you know, some some so many times our ideas are like 95% of the way there. And it's really that 5% That takes it over the top. And I just personally found that it's through collaborations, I'm able to do that 5% really close that gap and get that last little piece that pulls everything together. So that being said, I know you've been on an island before. So let's talk about some of the pitfalls that can come through being on an island. So the first is just indecision and just overall wishy washy Enos, you know, not feeling like you can make a firm decision, like having to constantly reevaluate things or try new things like look into more research, you really need to be more goal oriented when you're on an island. To prevent that and know what success looks like before you start, that can really help you. A second pitfall is just trying to do everything at once, it's really easy to see the whole problem and see all the different possibilities. But it's a little more difficult in trying to prioritize. So again, I try to do that at the 10,000 foot level first, like layout, the different problems, statements, different scenarios that I see available in front of me, and then prioritize them this, put them literally in order and work them in that order that will really help you. Another thing I've seen is burnout and a lack of follow through. It can be really easy to just get into a place of just wanting to just shut it down. Because you you are you're working from this high level, we have to think about our brains, they work in different facets. There's the more high level strategic brain that a lot of people really excel with. But not everyone does.

For many people working at that high level strategy without a clear path can be quite frankly, just exhausting. I kind of go back and forth on that, depending on what I'm working on. Sometimes I'm absolutely loving working in the high level and being able to stay up there and stay in that very strategic mindset before bringing things down. Other times it tends to just wear me down a little bit. I think it largely depends on the project that I'm working on. But I think more than anything, it depends on how often I'm getting I'm getting pulled out of it. If I'm in a position where I'm constantly having to bounce back and forth between strategic inputs and tactical inputs like that's when I tend to get worn down which leads me to that context shifting that we see a Um, context shifting, just having to constantly just, you know, reposition where your brain is. That's definitely something that that happens on an island. Because you're you're trying to do both at once, right, you're often working on the day to day, but also trying to work, you know more at that high level strategy. So a couple things that I've learned, really helps me cope with this. Because even now, with the team working, you know, not just within my business, but within other businesses that I work in, I'm not actually alone. But that being said, I do even then get put on the island. So go just figure stuff out. So just ways of coping with it is coming to the day with desired outcomes, not just a list of tasks of what you want to accomplish during the day, I come into both with both. So I my list of tasks, and that's on the right column. And then on my left column, I have my high level objectives for the day. And I think of those in very different paradigms, actually, I plan out my task first. And then I moved to my desired outcomes for the day. And that led lets me move through my task a little bit easier, with my eyes on the more strategic desired outcomes for the day. And I also plan my weekly outcomes. What do I want to see by the end of the week? Often, there'll be bigger projects like finalize this type of strategy. Well, what does that involve? That involves like eight different steps that have to happen in conjunction with each other in order to finalize a strategy. So like starting with the desired outcome at the beginning of the week, and then working from that. And that really helps take you out of the context of just doing things right. You're always working from that weekly plan from those weekly desired outcomes.

Having support systems in place is a huge way that I've learned to cope. Not only colleagues but also mastermind, people, people that you can bounce ideas off of, or just wind to, to be totally honest, for lack of a better phrase, someone who understands someone who can hear your gripes, bitches, mountain moans and complaints, because you're gonna have them, and it's fine, like, feel free to have those. And other areas is more journaling and meditation, I really, really enjoy. I enjoy journaling less, I don't journal a lot to be totally honest. Journaling, for me is like two sentences at the end of the day. Usually, like, where was I successful? Where did I win today? And where do I need support to get keep moving forward? So very more deliberate statements versus like journaling or directing or something? You know, there's different ways people do it. It's not really my bag of doughnuts. What I like to do more is meditation. So just being in silence able to reflect upon the day, and how I can improve or what, what right or wrong during that day. That's what tends to help me more, but you do you like know what works best for you try them both, and move forward with what gives you the most energy to two more to go in ways that I've coded is one, really just blocking out the outside world from when needing to be in focus. I like to turn off slack, turn off, turn off email, tell everyone on my team, hey, I'm going into focus mode, leave me alone. And to be honest, they do they're really good at that. I usually give them notice. So if I'm going to do focus time, in the afternoon, I'll first thing in the morning, I'll tell everyone on the team, hey, I'm going into focus mode at one o'clock, you got questions, you have till one o'clock to hit me up, because you're not going to get an answer until tomorrow otherwise. So just being really clear about your intention there when you're going to block out the outside world.

And finally, just those workflows and processes for predictive work. As I mentioned, when talking about context shifting, you know, it's one we have to actually think about things. Because they're going to come up, right, you're going to have to go in the more day to day task. But when you have processes, everything just so much easier, comes so much easier. So we talked a lot about what happens when we're on an island in this episode. And like for most of you, that's where you're just going to be right now. What I want you to just internalize right here and right now, is that these feelings that you feel on an island and these these things that you have to go through. Are you putting your team members in that same perspective? Are you putting them in that same position is the way that you're giving out tasks or responsibilities or maybe like taking yourself out of a situation. So making someone else have to fill it have to figure something out, or you inevitably putting them in an island as well?

Not to say don't do it like you're gonna have to do it. That's the reality of the situation is you're going to put your team members on islands as they're progressing as they're moving up as things have to get done. The thing is like understanding that you're putting them on an island, and understanding that the same things that you went through when faced with those types of situations are the same things they're gonna go through, or it's gonna be different in their own way. Because they're not going to experience it the same way that you are. But just understand that putting people on an island of causes these feelings, and how can you mitigate that? How can you better communicate an end state? How can you better show them the vision, that's really what's helped me the most is especially that communicate that end state if you know something is a sock fest, like telling them and it's coming up, and it's going to be over. So this one real life example, I went to a school called seer. Where school ever went through in my military career. I mean, it was awful. I lost like, almost 30 pounds, it was just a terrible school. But it's something that all special operators have to go through. And at one point, I remember saying I can't do this anymore. And but the guys around me and said, Dude, we get it's like one or two more days, and then it's over. Like we knew when the end state was we'd lost track of the days by that point, that's kind of the intent. But like, we didn't know that it was ending. So knowing that something sucky is going to end can help.

I distinctly remember like, every year before Black Friday, to this day, I get my team all excited, I act like this is my Well, it is my favorite time of the year as a marketer, but like, I outwardly get like super giggly excited about blackFriday to my team, because I want them to feel the excitement that I have excitement is very, very contagious. And you can make people like almost embrace the suck in a certain level way. And just like knowing that, hey, guys, keep it up. We got two more days, like those little cheerleader moments can really help. It seems silly, it seems like we shouldn't have to do that. No, that's your job. Okay, as a team, as a leader, as an organization, as someone that people are following. That's what they're looking for. It might feel like why am I like having to do this, like, be a cheerleader, embrace it, like people do need that. And then when you're in that moment, just make sure they have a chain of escalation, that they have a support system if something goes wrong, because it's going to that they know who to turn to, it doesn't always have to be you, but just build redundancies and overlaps where possible, but give people a way to reach out to get that support, even though you're thrown them on an island. Oh, that really helps. It's definitely something that I think we've all been through. And you're gonna go through again, like I said, embrace that idea. And rather than say, Well, this can't happen, just think about how we can adapt to our reaction to it. So much in life is really just dependent on our reaction to stimulus. And rather than run from it and pretend that it's never going to happen. Instead, just like coaching yourself a little bit for how you're going to react in that moment.

I think, when we operate from a place of knowing, and like operating from a plan and a strategy, like things tend to work out the best. And however, you can take those lessons and steal them into your business and then later install them onto your team. You're going to be better off for it and they are going to really value working for you. Hope you have a great rest of your week as we rush towards the weekend and coming up on the holy season for for Christians out there. So next week is Holy Week, I will still be here for you as we get ready for Easter. And until next time, keep after it. Look after your team look after yourself, because that's the only way that you're going to continue to be able to lead from the front. Hey, operators, I believe that within each and every one of us lies a warrior in waiting this warrior is able to conquer any obstacle that comes their way to discover how to awaken your warrior spirit and conquer what's holding you back. Go to Adam liette.com and join awaken the Warrior Within